Thank You Newburyport City Staff for Your Commitment During Recent Storms

Newburyport has been challenged this week with several severe weather events that included heavy snow, high winds and extreme tides that caused power outages, flooding, downed trees and power lines.

I wanted to first thank the essential City Staff who performed at the highest level; including the Chris LeClair, Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director and the Newburyport Fire Department, Marshal Mark Murray and Newburyport Police Department and Tony Furnari and his team from Department of Public Services. This combined group of City employees’ dedicated hours to protect the lives and property of the citizens of Newburyport. I cannot emphasize enough the commitment of these public servants that worked in extreme conditions to perform an outstanding service our community.

I also wanted to thank Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito who deployed the Massachusetts National Guard to assist in the safety of Plum Island residents.

Unfortunately the entire City of Newburyport lost power beginning early Thursday morning and the power outage continued for some Newburyport residents until yesterday afternoon. I would like to commend National Grid for a high level of communication during difficult conditions and restoring power to most of the City within a 24 hour period; one of the first communities in Essex County and the Merrimack Valley to have full power restored. I will be working regionally with other municipal leaders and State delegations to attempt to decrease the number of outages in our community particularly in west end of the City.